Jan. 11, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
14:00
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| Hi, welcome to another episode of God's Grace is Greater. | |
| I hope you guys are ready for a deep dive into the scripture. | |
| Today we're talking about Jesus making disciples and telling us that he was going to make them fishers of men. | |
| You probably have heard that phrase said before, but I'm going to tell you about the miracle, where that phrase came from, what Jesus did to recruit his disciples, to bring them into the ministry that they were a part of, and what lessons we can learn from that. | |
| Today we're in Luke chapter 5, verse 1 through 11, and we're going to be diving deep into the scripture here today after we read it. | |
| So I hope you guys are ready to learn a little bit more about the gospel that you probably didn't know before. | |
| And if you do, this is a great time to refresh and to reflect upon what these words mean. | |
| So let's go ahead and read Luke chapter 5, verse 1 through 11. | |
| It says, We've | |
| We've worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but at your word, I'll let down the nets. | |
| When they did this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets began to tear. | |
| So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. | |
| They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. | |
| When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me because I'm a sinful man, Lord. | |
| For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they took. | |
| And so were James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's partners. | |
| Don't be afraid, Jesus told Simon. | |
| From now on, you will be catching people. | |
| Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him. | |
| Wow. | |
| Now, I love this story because there's so much that we can take away from this in our own Christian walk every single day, in our own lives, in our own existence, as far as how we can understand Christ, His love and His compassion, His mercy and His greatness, even more clearly for ourselves, but what He's trying to teach us as well. | |
| In this story, what's happening here is we're picking up right where we left off. | |
| Now where we left off was pretty interesting. | |
| We left off with Jesus basically driving out unclean spirits, driving out demons, and doing great miracles and healings, and just starting his ministry. | |
| Now, part of the first parts of his ministry were making these 12 disciples, and this was a pretty big day for that ministry because several disciples were brought on board. | |
| Now, we read later in John chapter 1, I believe, that Simon Peter had been recruited, and I believe his cousin or brother Andrew had been recruited by Jesus earlier, but this was really what sealed the deal for them. | |
| Where you see Jesus again being followed by these huge crowds who are coming to listen to him preach. | |
| And what he does is he uses Simon Peter's boat to essentially... | |
| Speak to a large audience so he could be floated out to the ocean and that the shore would naturally create a type of bleachers, if you will, for Jesus' crowds to come and sit and listen to his amazing preaching. | |
| Now, what's interesting about this is, first off, that Jesus was allowed to use these boats by Simon, who was essentially, when Jesus arrived, cleaning his nets. | |
| And But then something incredible happens, right? | |
| So almost as if Jesus knew what they needed to see, to believe, you have this amazing exchange, right? | |
| Where when Jesus finishes his preaching, which was on the Lake Geneserat, which is essentially the Sea of Galilee, They have this exchange where Jesus tells Simon to put his net into deep water and try to make a catch. | |
| Now, without doubting him, Simon replies by saying, we've worked all night and we caught nothing. | |
| But... | |
| Without even missing a word, he says, Now what does that show? | |
| That shows that Simon was a man of faith. | |
| And when he heard Jesus' preachings, he was convinced that Jesus was going to be able to deliver on anything to the point where he told him to throw a net down, and he did. | |
| Now this is the kind of faith I believe we're all called to have in our lives when it comes to understanding the power of God. | |
| And in this next part, we actually read that when he put down the net, they actually caught a great number of fish. | |
| Now, we don't know how many fish this really was, but we're talking about filling up entire nets. | |
| So we're talking about a healthy amount of fish. | |
| And this is another point of faith that Simon had because he put his nets down. | |
| They normally would catch fish at night, which is why they were fishing all night. | |
| But in this example, during the day, Jesus tells them to put down the nets. | |
| And they do. | |
| And by faith, they see this great miracle of fish appear. | |
| This huge amount of fish that was so vast that it made Simon fall onto his knees and tell Jesus something that I think sometimes we all can feel. | |
| And it's the unworthiness that we may actually feel when it comes to this kind of grace that God has given us. | |
| Because he says to Jesus, go away from me because I'm a sinful man, Lord. | |
| For he and those with him were amazed at the catch of the fish they took. | |
| James and John, the sons of Zebedee, or the sons of thunder as they are called, I believe at one point in the gospel, they were Simon's partners and they were all in amazement in what they had just done. | |
| But Simon says, go away from me because I'm a sinful man, Lord. | |
| Now, when we're confronted with God's grace, sometimes that is the initial response for some, where you think, I don't deserve this. | |
| But essentially, isn't that what grace is? | |
| It's undeserved favor. | |
| That's essentially what grace means. | |
| God is giving us this favor that we don't deserve. | |
| Yet, still, He gives it to us. | |
| That is what God's grace truly is, and that is what Simon Peter was feeling when Jesus was doing this great miracle upon him. | |
| But what does Jesus respond? | |
| He doesn't say, go away, and you're not deserving. | |
| No. | |
| What does he say to him? | |
| And I believe a lot of it is because of the way Simon Peter responded and because he obviously was picked or chosen by Jesus to do this, these great things in his name that he would end up doing. | |
| He tells him something that we need to be told ourselves, I believe, sometimes and probably more often than not. | |
| Don't be afraid. | |
| Because fear is always going to drive us into making bad decisions. | |
| Fear is going to drive us away from God. | |
| Now, there's a difference between fearing the Lord through reverence and having fear in our hearts that paralyzes us and keeps us from doing God's will in this earth. | |
| The fear that Jesus is telling Simon Peter not to have in his heart is the fear that would keep all of us from going out and doing great things for God because we don't believe that God can do them because we just don't understand how he can. | |
| But remember, we have God's grace, an undeserved favor that God has shown upon us, which means through him we can do great things. | |
| Anything is possible. | |
| As long as whatever you do, you do it for the glory of God. | |
| 1 Corinthians 10. | |
| But if you remember in this story what we're reading here, when Jesus says to Simon, don't be afraid, what does he say next? | |
| He says, from now on, you will be catching people. | |
| And in this moment, they dropped everything and they followed Jesus. | |
| Now, isn't that kind of like what we're called to do in our lives with Jesus? | |
| Because what Simon realized, and James and John and those who were there, what they realized, the ones who followed Jesus... | |
| Very quickly was that the boat and the fish and everything, and you've got to imagine, for them, this is their life's work. | |
| This is their jobs. | |
| They're walking away from more than just possessions. | |
| They're walking away from a livelihood, a career. | |
| But they realized in that moment that what Jesus offered was more than that. | |
| And the fear that had kept them probably from seeing it up until that point had disappeared by the grace of God. | |
| This undeserved favor that they had been given. | |
| Now I want you to remember in your life right now that God's grace is upon you and me and us together. | |
| Now what we do with that grace is going to say a lot about what happens to us in the end. | |
| Do we take it and do we do what Simon Peter did and drop everything and go toward Jesus and say, God, show me the way. | |
| I give you everything I have. | |
| I have nothing without you. | |
| Or, or, do we tell God to wait? | |
| Just wait. | |
| Just let me finish what I'm doing over here and then I'll get to you. | |
| Just give me one more time to do my own thing and then maybe I'll try it my way, God, and then I'll get to you. | |
| Don't be that way in your life. | |
| If right now you feel like you're holding yourself back from God out of fear, remember what Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. | |
| You must fear in reverence God. | |
| That is healthy and good, but do not let fear drive you away from the best gift you have ever been offered in your life, the eternal salvation that was already bought and paid for with the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross. | |
| I encourage you all, if you're watching right now, to know that in your heart right now, God is standing there waiting for you. | |
| Jesus is calling you. | |
| He's already called you. | |
| He can make you... | |
| And the best part is, for Simon and all of us, right, who know that Jesus has already saved us and accept Him as our Savior, is that then we get to do what Jesus says there. | |
| Go out and be fishers of men. | |
| Because you will catch people beating... | |
| When you're given the best gift in the world, the truly the best gift in the world, the eternal salvation, life everlasting through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you know what the last thing you want to do with that gift is? | |
| Keep it for yourself. | |
| Of course you want it for yourself, but the first thing I have felt since I've been saved by Jesus in my heart I just want to give it to everyone out there, which is why I do exactly what I'm doing right now. | |
| Because all I want to do is give that to everyone, that gift that God gave me, to share it with as many people as I can. | |
| And you're going to feel that same way. | |
| And if you haven't felt that yet, I pray that God will speak to your heart and show you that which you can share with others, which is the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. | |
| So, do not be afraid. | |
| And remember that God's grace is upon us. | |
| And that eternal salvation is at hand. | |
| And all you have to do is accept Jesus as your Savior. | |
| So I'm going to go ahead and leave it there. | |
| We're going to say a prayer and then we'll wrap it up. | |
| Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, we give such great thanks for all you've done in our lives, and we pray, Lord, that you'll show us the way forward to help others in whatever way we can. | |
| We thank you, Lord, for guiding us, strengthening us, and compassionately giving us the grace, the undeserved favor from us. | |
| You, Lord, through your Son, our Lord, who died on the cross for our sins, I pray that all those out there watching will see this powerful gift and accept it, and then take the gift that they've been given and share it with all those who need to hear it as well. | |
| We thank you most of all for our eternal salvation. | |
| In Jesus' name, amen. | |
| All right, guys. | |
| Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode. | |
| We're going to go ahead and sign off there. | |
| I want to say a special thank you to everybody watching. | |
| And if you're watching this on YouTube, there's a link in the description where you can find my news show. | |
| It's a daily news show. | |
| It's over on Rumble. | |
| I can't say the things on YouTube that I would say. | |
| On Rumble. | |
| So just go watch it there if you want to catch that and give me a subscribe over there. | |
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| There's ways to support the channel and the link in the description below. | |
| But with that being said, I want to say thank you for watching this episode of God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
| My name is Craig. |
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